SOUTHINGTON — There are coaches who scour the state trying to find that little edge over an unfamiliar opponent, especially when a state championship is on the line.

Call some league coaches, call some friends who may have seen them, search the internet and all the available resources there from various newspaper stories, Youtube videos and the like. Woodstock Academy coach Greg Smith had it easy in that regard since some of Trinity Catholic’s games were broadcast on MSG varsity.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Smith said with a laugh.

Bacon Academy coach Dave Shea gives a different impression. He’s a little more old school than that. Shea discusses Farmington in basic terms, but he is much more apt to be looking at it from a much more familiar viewpoint.

“What worries me and what I spend most my time on is what we’re going to do, how we’re going to play,” Shea said.

Believe it or not, that’s still a work in progress. Despite the fact that the Bobcats are the defending Class L champions going into their second consecutive title game at 1:30 p.m. today against Farmington at the Mohegan Sun Arena and missing just one starter from a year ago, Shea still has concerns especially after their semifinal game a week ago.

The word “escaped” probably has special meaning to the Bobcats after a 33-27 victory over Tolland a week ago in Hartford.

“It’s very impressive,” Shea said of his team’s intestinal fortitude to overcome sometimes not only an opponent, but their own shortcomings.

It seems like only yesterday that the Bobcats (24-2) were enjoying the fruits of a very special moment, basking in the glory of an unexpected state championship over E.O. Smith last year.

The pressure to get back to Mohegan Sun was on the Bobcats since the final buzzer last year when everyone realized that they were only going to lose one starter from that team.

“To have even got this far for a second time is just unimaginable and unrealistic,” Bacon senior Sarah Rogers said. “Last year, this felt like a dream and this year, it’s just as much a dream.”

A dream that will, hopefully, have a happy ending.

“It really is important (to win),” Bacon senior Michaela Siver said. “I want to go out with a bang, we all want to go out strong. We have to leave everything on the court, it’s our last game and to have your last high school game at a state championship is beyond — I’m getting chills just thinking about it — what I could imagine.”

To do that, they have to beat a team that has defied some odds to get to the state title game. The No. 10 Indians are the lowest-seeded team to have made a state title game on the girls side (No. 23 Weston and 25th-seeded Weaver did so on the boys) but have got past some very good teams such as No. 2 Pomperaug and No. 6 RHAM. Shea compares Farmington favorably to Ledyard, just not as tall.

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Shea said he was watching the video of last year’s state title game this past Wednesday and witnessed the same kind of comeback ability and grit that was displayed by the Bobcats last Saturday versus Tolland.

“We were down, 18-8, (and came back) so we have a lot of resilience, we hang in there, and they were determined to get back to (Mohegan Sun),” Shea said. “The expectations are higher, we’ve had a lot of close games. In some games, like the paper said, we weren’t too impressive or we were struggling, but in the end, we win those games.”

Shea attributes some of that resiliency to the team’s business-like attitude.

“We’re never satisfied, never satisfied with how we play,” Bacon senior Taylor McLaughlin said. “We may be coming off a win, but we will be like, ‘Hey, let’s do this, this and this.’ We’re all going off in the locker room before Coach even gets there and he come in and be like, ‘Stop, just let me say a few things.’ I think that’s what helps — we’re never satisfied.”